Issaquah’s City Council decided to release the Klahanie Potential Annexation Area on April 21.

Faced with a draft interlocal agreement, which the Sammamish City Council approved during its April 15 meeting, Issaquah’s council gave unanimous support for the comprehensive deal.

In short, Issaquah would agree to release the Klahanie area by the end of 2014 in exchange for Sammamish’s support of Issaquah growth designations, as well as that city funding improvements to Issaquah-Fall City Road to the tune of $30 million.

“Issaquah would agree to release the PAA to allow Sammamish to take immediate steps to incorporate it into its comprehensive plan and proceed with potential annexation,” Councilman Tola Marts said, introducing the agreement to the full council.

I hope you have opinions, citizens of Issaquah, because they could really come in handy.

The next few months seem yet again chock full of important decisions that the City Council will make. I have heard and reported repeatedly that they want public input on all matters that will impact the future of Issaquah. So, this is another message to encourage you to take them up on that.

Let’s think about what’s to come over the next several months. And, keep in mind, this is your government and you should you tell it what you think.

Peter ClarkPress reporter

While the City Council extended the marijuana moratorium, it expects the ban to lift in July. As the council continues to look at how a recreational marijuana business should operate in Issaquah, let it know how you feel.

Two public input meetings left the Park Board with a recommendation to build a new skate park in the Tibbetts Valley Park, across from the park & ride. How does that strike you?

Leaders from Issaquah and Sammamish announced a deal April 4 that will provide for the transfer of the Klahanie potential annexation area to Sammamish. The agreement is preliminary and will still need to be approved by both city councils.

In broad terms, Sammamish gets Klahanie, and Issaquah gets support on a host of other issues.

The move comes after just a week and a half after the Issaquah City Council asked Mayor Fred Butler to enter talks with the city’s northern neighbor to see how releasing the entire potential annexation area would benefit the region.

Klahanie

Just get on with it and resolve the situation

After years of studies, meetings, analysis and the spending hundreds of thousands of dollars by the city of Issaquah and a variety of opposition groups, those of us in the Klahanie Potential Annexation Area are still an unincorporated area with the resulting lack of services enjoyed by our Incorporated neighbors and paying in excess of $500 every year in extra taxes.

It appears to be of no real concern to the governments of Issaquah, Sammamish and King County that this ridiculous situation continues to be dragging on indefinitely. It is beyond me why these parties cannot collaborate and by means of an interlocal agreement, or some other rapid process, get this off dead center and resolved once and for all.

I have lived in Klahanie for more than 20 years and worked tirelessly for annexation to Issaquah. Now, I just really don’t care; all I ask is that we please be annexed to Sammamish or Issaquah ASAP and stop all the infighting, misinformation, stalling and lack of a backbone by the so-called leaders and self-appointed “experts.” Enough is enough!

It’s time to just let Klahanie go

Please, please, let us stop writing about Klahanie.

The Issaquah City Council pushed and pushed to convince the residents of the Klahanie area to join the city. The residents rejected the idea. Now, the council is considering another study of the issue and even talking about carving the area up on a precinct-by-precinct basis, cherry-picking the spots that voted to join.

The balkanization of Klahanie is not the answer. Does that council really want to start down this road of carving up territory after election results come in? Perhaps, in future elections, only people who live in precincts that support a bond measure will have to incur the debt. Maybe people whose precinct supports a losing candidate will get an alternate City Council, so the person they choose can serve them.

Proposal needs geo-tech, hydrological review

The proposed redevelopment at Seventh and Gilman (Antique Mall area) is the first go through our new Central Issaquah Plan regulations. One thing that has become clear is the difficulty of construction in high-ground water, near creek, earthquake hazard areas … much of the valley floor. The land at Seventh and Gilman has the further complication of being a Special Flood Hazard Area.

It is imperative in these difficult sites that there is belt-and-suspenders review of both the geo-tech report and the hydrologic modeling from the developer. Please require third-party peer review of both the geo-tech analysis and the model.

Issaquah might still offer annexation to parts of the Klahanie area — and that might take another year.

In the March 10 City Council work session and the March 11 Land and Shore Committee meeting, exploring next steps for the Klahanie potential annexation area took center stage. King County Elections certified the Feb. 11 special election results Feb. 25, in which residents in that area voted whether to join the city of Issaquah. Needing 60 percent to pass and for those residents to assume the city’s bonded indebtedness, the vote earned 49.47 percent in favor of joining Issaquah.

Council President Paul Winterstein identified five options available to the council for consideration in light of the certified vote.

Klahanie

Open letter to the Issaquah City Council:

The vote is over and the residents of Klahanie and surrounding neighborhoods have said no to annexation to Issaquah. My neighbors and I voted no, not because we wanted to stay unincorporated, but because we would like to pursue Sammamish as an option. In order for that to happen, and to have the opportunity to belong to a city, I am asking for your help.

When Mayor Fred Butler and Councilman Joe Forkner were campaigning last fall, both said that they would support removing Klahanie from Issaquah’s Potential Annexation Area if the citizens rejected Issaquah annexation.

Please remember your words last fall, Mr. Butler, and please support our area in finding a home with your neighbor to the north. Time is of the essence! I would further request you not delay this process with considerations of dividing up the Klahanie PAA, which would only lead to difficulties for both cities when it comes to providing services and road improvements.

Klahanie-area residents have spoken — and 32 of them may make all the difference.

The final results of the Feb. 11 election are in. With 49 percent of registered voters casting a ballot, only 49.47 percent, or 1,504, voted for an Issaquah annexation. While 50.53 percent, or 1,536, voted against the measure.

Even with the narrow number of votes separating the sides, it is outside the 0.25 percent margin that would trigger an automatic recount. Though one side or the other could pay for one, no one has suggested they are willing to do so.